Another ramp possibly required

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Re: Mixed views on parking proposal for waterfront, September 14 story.

It’s frustrating to read once again mixed opinions from our councillors on fixing future parking around the inner harbur boat ramp. At least environmental planning and regulations chairwoman Pat Seymour says not enough focus is on boat users’ needs.

Gisborne District Council is at fault because originally the whole ramp complex was conditional to have specific resource consent to provide a certain number of trailer parks. Now businesses occupy parks around the ramp slipway enclosure.

Because GDC violated this resource consent, and changed the rules, Gisborne’s boaties are penalised. For GDC to then say consensus can’t be reached by these “other stakeholders” has nothing to do with consensus and the original contract to build a ramp. Let me explain our problem.

Boaties need crew to run a boat. They meet at the ramp with cars and many carry their personal tackle boxes full of heavy sinkers to the boat as well as bait and fishing rods. When they come back they may have a heavy sack of fish to share. They wash the boat down and flush the motor with the ramp hose, then carry their loads to their cars. It’s quite an inconveniance to struggle a long way from the ramp to distant parking.

The article in The Herald identifies that competition days are the problem. Does GDC know how many days a year are competition days? The competitions calendar starting June 2016 ending June 2018 amounts to 135 days. This ramp, the only suitable ramp in town, caters for today’s sized-boats that can’t go under bridges. The 135 days does not include all the public that go boating when the weather is right, including week days, on non-competition days. Coastguard in emergencies and MPI compliance also use the ramp.

So we need the most suitable parks reinstated and marked accordingly, because they are nearest to the ramp launching, hauling and maneouvering site. That is in front of the slipway and washdown facility.

If all this fails, GDC should consider constructing — under the Public Works Act — another ramp with plenty of parking off Customhouse Street into the river, similar to Whakatane.

Alain JORION